Burnham 310 is a skyscraper in

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in ...

, United States. Construction was started in December 2006 and completed in September 2008 after months of planning, development and delayed construction. Originally, the city block at 310 East Springfield Avenue had been occupied by the area's first

hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

. The establishment of the Burnham City Hospital was proposed in 1935, the same year as the Champaign City Building. Under the

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by United States Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was ...

program, which was established as part of the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

of 1933 during President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

's first term, both building proposals qualified for federal grant funding. In 1989, the Burnham City Hospital merged with Mercy Hospital to form Provena Covenant Medical Center and, in 1992, most services were consolidated which caused the Burnham to close. The structure then stood vacant for 14 years until it was razed in summer 2004.

Building design

The tower was designed by VOA Associates, and was intended to be the cornerstone of the "Burnham District" that would link Campustown near the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

campus with Downtown Champaign. Upon its completion in 2008, Burnham 310 became the tallest building in the

Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area The Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, also known as Champaign–Urbana and Urbana–Champaign as well as Chambana (colloquially), is a metropolitan area in east-central Illinois. As defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the me ...

, surpassing the Tower at Third. However, the building has been surpassed in height by 309 Green in 2009, and by HERE Champaign in 2015. The first floor of the tower is occupied by sales office space for Greystar Communities and Apartments. Attached to the east side of the tower is a

County Market County Market is a supermarket chain primarily operating in the Midwestern United States. Presently, more than 100 independently owned County Market stores operate in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri. County Market is part of the United Nat ...

grocery store, which also houses a

Caribou Coffee Caribou Coffee Company is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. It was founded in Edina, Minnesota, in 1992. As of September 2023, the company operates over 750 locations worldwide. It is headquartered in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. ...

store. Currently, the County Market is the only full-service grocery store located within Campustown. A fitness center is also located on the first floor of the building. The second to eighteenth floors are a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.

Neighborhood impact

Boneyard Creek Second Street Basin Stone Arch Bridge Champaign Illinois

Because of the completion of Burnham 310, the

Champaign Park District The Champaign Park District is the special district responsible for maintenance of public parks in the city of Champaign, Illinois. There are just over of parkland within the city limits. As of the fiscal year 2011-2012, the park district had ...

made improvements to Scott Park. New playground equipment and landscaping updates were completed during summer 2009. The

Stone Arch Bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side, and partiall ...

was structurally improved.

References

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External links

* Apartment buildings in Illinois Buildings and structures in Champaign, Illinois Residential buildings completed in 2008 University and college residential buildings Skyscrapers in Illinois Residential skyscrapers in Illinois 2008 establishments in Illinois {{Illinois-struct-stub